Scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and other institutions have discovered a sign of the early development of pancreatic cancer – an upsurge in certain amino acids that occurs before the disease is diagnosed and symptoms appear. The research is being published online today by the journal Nature Medicine.

A large DNA analysis of people with and without pancreatic cancer has identified several new genetic markers that signal increased risk of developing the highly lethal disease, report scientists from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

Dana-Farber scientists find when given together, two orally available experimental drugs – sapacitabine and seliciclib – worked together to elicit antitumor effects in patients with incurable BRCA-deficient cancers.

Dana-Farber researchers report that advanced pancreatic cancers are dependent on the continued expression of a mutant oncogene that "rewires" key metabolic pathways, which suggests that these altered pathways might be potential targets for future drugs.

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute scientists report that they have shrunk or
slowed the growth of notoriously resistant pancreatic tumors in mice,
using a drug routinely prescribed for malaria and rheumatoid arthritis.

A protein that dwindles in response to obesity and a sedentary lifestyle
may one day help doctors predict which people are at increased risk for
pancreatic cancer, new research by Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and
collaborating scientists indicates.